Firmament Sword

“C-can I?” Du Qingteng asked, looking at Lan.

Lan, however, stood there expressionlessly, showing no sign of objection.

Du Qingteng grinned, stepping toward the old man. With one side of his face already swollen, the elderly man glared at Du Qingteng with venomous hatred. Though he said nothing, his expression made it clear he loathed them to the core.

“I’m gonna hit you now!” Du Qingteng raised his hand.

The old man stared fixedly at Du Qingteng. Within his profound eyes, it was as if the entire cosmos was spinning at high speed, powerful enough to devour all of creation.

Du Qingteng froze for a moment, a dazed look in his eyes.

HUMPH!

Lan, who was holding the old man upside down, shot him a cold glare. A layer of cold sweat immediately broke out on the old man’s forehead, and his eyes instantly returned to their cloudy state, making him look like a decrepit man at death’s door.

Du Qingteng snapped out of it, realizing he had almost fallen for a trick. He felt a pang of shame, and at the same time, his anger toward the old man intensified.

‘This is just too much!’

A top-tier expert of the Celestial Venerable Realm, using a powerful artifact to cloud the heavenly secrets, had come to a place like this just to bully the younger generation.

The word “shameless” couldn’t even begin to describe it. This was a whole new level of shamelessness!

SLAP!

This time, Du Qingteng didn’t hesitate at all, landing a vicious slap on the old man’s face.

He didn’t use any of his power, but the slap was harsh enough. A bright red handprint quickly appeared on the old man’s aged face.

The middle-aged man, the two young men, and the young woman went berserk. Their eyes turned red as they gritted their teeth, ready to charge over and fight Du Qingteng to the death.

Lan just let out a soft snort, and all of them lost their strength, collapsing limply to the ground, their eyes filled with endless terror and despair.

It suddenly occurred to them that over the past few days, along their journey… this was exactly how they had treated others!

Those young experts who had obtained some Spiritual Treasures or found artifacts in ancient ruins would be rendered completely immobile by a cold snort from their ancestor, collapsing limply to the ground.

The terror and despair in their eyes now… was the very same expression they had seen in the eyes of those powerful young cultivators.

Du Qingteng chuckled as he stood up, then boldly said to Lan, “Senior, can you get that treasure he’s using to cloud the heavenly secrets off him?”

“You little bastard, you dare!” the old man suddenly roared, his eyes looking like they could devour a person whole.

Lan, however, paid no attention to his reaction. She nodded and glanced at Xu Luo. “Do you want it?”

Du Qingteng couldn’t help but roll his eyes, desperately wanting to shout: ‘I do! I want it!’

Xu Luo smiled and said, “A thing like this… well, it’s a treasure, I suppose. Better than nothing.”

“…” The middle-aged man and the others collapsed on the ground, along with Du Qingteng, all stared speechlessly at Xu Luo.

‘What do you mean, “better than nothing”?’ they thought. ‘That’s an unparalleled, powerful artifact that can cloud the heavenly secrets and let you run rampant in these ancient ruins, okay?!’

Just then, Lan lifted the old man straight up. She wasn’t very tall, but in her hands, the old man seemed to shrink, held upside down like a rag doll.

Lan held the old man and shook him forcefully. “Why isn’t it falling out?” she said.

“…” Now, even Xu Luo was speechless. He looked at Lan and couldn’t help but curse inwardly: ‘Are you really this clueless, or are you just humiliating this old bastard?!’

But as Lan spoke, things began to fall from the old man’s body with a CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.

Du Qingteng and Master Mao, who were standing to the side, were both dumbfounded.

The corners of Xu Luo’s mouth… couldn’t help but twitch violently. He muttered, “This actually works?”

“Holy shit… Divine materials!” Du Qingteng’s eyes went red as he stared at the items falling from the old man.

“Eight Desolates Iron, Ancient Bronze… and Jade Blood Divine Gold… Damn it, just how many people did this old bastard rob?!”

Du Qingteng was stunned. Looking at all the items falling from the old man, he had a strong urge to rush forward and snatch them all.

Any single one of those divine materials, if it were to appear in the world, would cause countless experts to fight over it.

It was no exaggeration to say that a single piece of Jade Blood Divine Gold was enough to make a great sect like the three great Holy Lands cast aside their status and fight for it!

Just a fingernail-sized piece of Jade Blood Divine Gold, when integrated into a weapon, could be used to forge an Unparalleled Divine Soldier!

Eight Desolates Iron could not only be used to forge top-tier Divine Soldiers but also to refine magical treasures. It was one of the essential base materials for most powerful artifacts.

Ancient Bronze was likewise an indispensable divine material for forging powerful artifacts.

Even a Supreme Great Sect would only have a small reserve of these materials, and they might not have all of them—perhaps only one type.

To think that this old man had so many…

Xu Luo also knew his stuff. He walked over with a look of surprise, picking up the items as he said, “Heh, what a pile of scrap metal. It’s really polluting the environment. Who else would be as kind as me and clean all this up?”

Du Qingteng, on the side, was about to cry. He looked at Xu Luo and said, “Bro, no, Master… I’m begging you, please give me the chance to take out this trash!”

Xu Luo refused with a solemn expression. “How could I do that? We’re good friends. How could I let you do such a thing? I’ll handle it!”

“But… I really want to pick it up!” Du Qingteng was on the verge of tears. Watching Xu Luo gather everything up in a flash, he felt the urge to just mug him.

Finally, Lan gave the old man’s ankles another shake, and with a THUD, one more item fell from his body.

Lan merely glanced at it and pouted. “And here I thought it was some kind of treasure. It’s just a Heaven-Deceiving Talisman that’s about to break. How boring.”

“It can’t be used anymore?” Xu Luo picked up the palm-sized, gray, and utterly unremarkable Talisman and asked Lan.

“Probably… it can still be used two or three more times. Each time… it’ll last for about half a month,” Lan said dismissively. “It’s not that useful.”

At this moment, the old man was so overcome with shame, anger, and terror that he was on the verge of fainting.

He didn’t know how she had done it. Without even touching his storage pouch, she had shaken out all of his valuable treasures.

An unbelievable… yet undeniable fact was now laid out before him.

This young woman who had captured him alive… her power… had to have reached an absurd level, far surpassing his own by countless tiers!

Although he himself was only at the Celestial Venerable First Step.

But he was a knowledgeable person. The entire Celestial Venerable Realm was divided into nine steps, and the gap between each step was unimaginably vast.

He had exhausted all methods and spent countless years, yet he had been unable to take that second step.

But within his family, there was a true titan—an ancestor at the Celestial Venerable Ninth Step who was still alive!

To capture him so easily and make him lose all control of his body… only that Ninth Step ancestor… could do such a thing!

Recalling how that bald youth had casually mentioned the two words “Saint Venerable,” the old man hated himself for being so careless and falling into their trap.

It was useless to say anything now. The old man prayed for only one thing: to get back alive!

As long as he could leave these ancient ruins alive and report this to the secluded ancestor of his family, that ancestor would surely come out of seclusion to get justice for him!

So, no matter what he had lost—even if his ancestral artifact was taken and he was ruthlessly humiliated—he said nothing. He endured it with all his might. As long as he could get through this… survive this ordeal, he would get everything back sooner or later!

‘You just wait!’

‘This ancestor misjudged and miscalculated this time!’

‘As long as I can survive this… This ancestor will tear every single one of you… to pieces!’

Lan finally tossed the old man to the ground and said to Xu Luo, “He’s still thinking about revenge in his heart!”

The old man’s heart filled with terror. He put on a wronged expression and said, “Senior, what are you talking about…? This junior made a mistake and has already been punished. Senior has also taken all of this junior’s treasures. This junior dare not have any complaints. I beg you, Senior, to be merciful and let this junior go!”

As the old man spoke, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, his spirit appearing utterly drained.

Without the Heaven-Deceiving Talisman, his power had been suppressed to the Initial Tier Ultimate Venerable. It was a small miracle that he could even remain conscious after sustaining such heavy injuries.

Lan couldn’t be bothered to listen to the old man. She walked over to Xu Luo and took his arm.

This scene made the old man’s pupils shrink again, as if he had just witnessed something incredible.

A woman whose cultivation was at least at the peak of the Celestial Venerable Realm was so attached to a young man. What exactly… was their relationship?

Moreover… there was one more thing that terrified the old man even more. He himself had relied on the Heaven-Deceiving Talisman to run amok in this Ancient Ruins World.

But his opponent… how was she doing it?

‘Could it be… she has a Heaven-Deceiving Talisman on her, too?’

Du Qingteng, standing to the side, was eager for action. He looked at the old man with a malicious grin and said, “The strongest person Master Du has ever killed was only an Ultimate Venerable. I never thought… that one day, I’d get to play with a Celestial Venerable. Get up, you old thing, stop playing dead!”

“You must have done a lot of robbing and killing recently, haven’t you? Look at you, the space between your brows is dark, and your glabella is overflowing with bloodlust. Who knows how many innocent people have died at your hands.”

“So, stop playing pitiful. Get up… and fight me. If you can remain undefeated at Master Du’s hands, Master Du will let you go!”

The old man’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Du Qingteng and asked, “Are you serious?”

“Of course! Master Du’s word is his bond!” Du Qingteng said, while thinking to himself: ‘Idiot. I said if you can remain undefeated at *my* hands, *I’ll* let you go. I never said anyone else would!’

The old man slowly stood up and said, “Fine… In that case, allow this old one to experience… the strength of the current generation’s young experts!”